Polanen (Eastern Slavs)

The Polanen (ostslav. Поляне ) or Poljanen were an East Slavic tribe who lived in the north of central Ukraine on both sides of the Dnepr in the early Middle Ages .

The Pol (j) anes are described by Nestor as a large and progressive tribe. According Nestorchronik were anen the pole (j), and their leaders Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv and her sister Lybed that around 480 n. Chr. The city of Kiev founded.

The name Pol (j) anen, known after 1000, is derived from the Slavic word pole 'field' and refers to their rather open living space (plain, field) (cf. Poland , Polanen ). In contrast, the name of the northern Drewlanen , which inhabited the dense forests of Polesia , came from drewo 'wood'.

The Pol (y) anes formed one of the main components of the Kievan Rus and were later absorbed by the modern East Slavic peoples. A time later, when the eastern Poljans were no longer mentioned, the name of the western Polans emerged after the year 1000 as the ancestors of the Poles.

literature

• Yevgeny Zhukov and others: Sovetskaya istoritscheskaja enziklopedija: Tom 11 . Sovetskaya enziklopedija, Moscow 1968, pp. 392–393. (Russian)

Web links

• Polanen in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine (English)